The re-ignitable second stage fired only one time. Contact with the satellite
was never established. Rocket and satellite did not reach the required
altitude and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere before even completing
one orbit.

There are two versions why this had happened.

Version 1: There was a malfunction of the second stage's flight
control system. Rocket and satellite veered off course, which explains
why contact was lost. The incident happened outside the reach of the Russian
ground control centres' radar.

Version 2: According to Russian newspapers, satellite owner EarthWatch
did not re-programme its satellite correctly after a launch delay of one
hour at the request of the customer. It is claimed the satellite's timers
were not reset to reflect the new launch time.

"Americans have yet to answer the question whether the necessary
adjustments had been made ... in connection with the one-hour delay. The
satellite control system, for example, may have ordered its solar cells
to open while the rocket was flying with its engines on. This may have
destroyed the American satellite," according to an article in Kommersant
Daily.

An unnamed member of the investigation commission was quoted as saying,
"if the accident had been caused by failure of the second firing
of the second stage engine, some anomalies ... would have been registered
at the first firing."

This would indicate that the second stage was also destroyed, because
undisputedly there has never been a second firing, and both rocket and
satellite are known to have crashed back to Earth soon after launch.